


What The Heart Wants

by Haywire



Category: The Good Place (TV)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-11
Updated: 2019-01-11
Packaged: 2019-10-08 01:47:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 988
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17377235
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Haywire/pseuds/Haywire
Summary: Eleanor ponders a discussion she had with Michael the other day, and what it could mean for her and one of her fellow cockroaches.





	What The Heart Wants

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers if you're not up to date with the show, takes place ~episode 35 (season 3).

Eleanor pored over the menu once more. The others had already ordered and, feeling the pressure of holding everyone else up, she went with what was familiar: a plain ol’ cheeseburger and fries, with a vanilla milkshake on the side.

The waitress took their menus and trotted back behind the counter to place their orders. Eleanor looked around the diner, taking in its atmosphere. The group had crossed the border into Canada earlier that morning, and decided to stop for lunch at this obvious rip-off of a popular American chain named the Lumberjack-In-The-Box.

On each table there was even a little Lumberjack-In-The-Box mascot, clad in a tiny checked red flannel jacket. She reached out, pushed down on its head, and watched it boing-oing-oing back and forth a few times before turning her gaze across the others.

Jason was trying his best to solve the maze on his children’s menu, crossing each of several failed attempts with a different coloured crayon. He’d been through blue and red, and was making his current attempt with a partially cracked-off yellow stub.

Michael and Janet were scanning through a road map together, plotting out the rest of their journey to Doug Forcett’s home. He lived pretty far off of the grid so it wasn’t immediately obvious how to get to him, even with Janet’s vast knowledge, and Michael was trying to make sure there were plenty of Tim Horton’s on the way. He had apparently developed a problem.

Chidi was engaged in a serious discussion with Tahani, who had ordered poutine for her lunch, believing it to be some form of fancy French cuisine due to its name. He was trying to explain to her the distinction of proper French cuisine and that of French Canadian fare, along with an extremely over detailed and completely unnecessary lecture about the differences between both cultures.

She watched his face as he spoke, how involved he became in the process. No matter what type of intellectual endeavour Chidi was engaged in, he always gave it his all. While Eleanor didn’t really see the point in that - or anything intellectual, if she was being totally honest - she did appreciate that about him. It had saved her and the others’ bacon on more than one occasion after all.

It was also rewarding to see him so passionate about something, though a little less rewarding when it was explaining the varying characteristics between traditional French cheeses and the cheese curds used in poutine.

Damn it, now she wanted poutine.

Chidi reached up and rubbed the back of his neck as he continued speaking to Tahani, then readjusted his glasses. Eleanor felt a little swell in her chest as he touched his face, all of Michael’s previous words coming back to her. Had she ever done that to him, she wondered? Stroked his head, given him a neck massage as he hunched over a desk and studied… something, she didn’t know what, but Chidi was always studying _something._

Did she still want a relationship like that with him again? Would he want a relationship with her? How would she bring it up with him, or should she even attempt it?

Jason broke her out of her reverie with a celebratory whoop as he finally completed his maze. A closer look at the placemat showed Eleanor that he’d actually crossed over a solid line on the way, but she kept it to herself.

“Do you believe in second chances, Jason?” she found herself asking aloud while the others were still engaged in their own conversations.

“Huh?” Jason blinked at her. “Oh, yeah, well this was my…” He counted the number of crayons laying out before him - he’d added a purple one to his attempts while Eleanor had been Chidi-gazing - “fourth one, technically, but yes.”

“No, I mean…” Eleanor stopped, not wanting to let him onto her actual train of thought. He’d only derail it, even if accidentally. “We’ve been through so much, and have had so many chances. Do you think we’ll get any more, or that we even _deserve_ them?”

“Ahh, I know what you mean,” replied Jason. “It’s hard to say, Eleanor. We have had a lot of chances, and have made many choices. Right now all we can do is see how they’ll play out.”

It was Eleanor’s turn to blink at him. “That’s pretty deep there, buddy. Didn’t know you had it in you.” She gave him a wry grin and stole another quick glance at Chidi before continuing. “I think you’re right, though. Some things you just gotta let happen and then figure out what you do afterwards.”

“There are some things that you can change, though. Some things that maybe we should change.” Jason frowned and looked from Chidi to Eleanor. “It may not be easy, but isn’t it better to change things before they can actually leave a bad taste in your mouth?”

“Dude, get out of my head,” muttered Eleanor under her breath. “I can’t believe I’m saying this, but you might be onto something, Jason.” She turned and looked at Chidi again, who was now wildly gesticulating towards a map of Quebec on the wall as he spoke louder and louder. “Wait, but how did you know?”

“I had this feeling in my gut,” he replied. “You should always follow your gut instinct, especially with things like this.”

“Things like…” Eleanor started, raising an eyebrow.

Jason thrust his hand in the air, trying to get the waitress’s attention. “Excuse me, miss? I’d like to change my mind and add some jalapeno poppers to my lunch order please!” She saw him and waved her acknowledgement, and Jason beamed at Eleanor. “Like lunch order stuff.”

“Right. Lunch stuff.” She rolled her eyes at him.

“Hey, the heart wants what it wants, Eleanor,” Jason answered, then went back to try the kid’s word search on his placemat.

Eleanor looked back at Chidi and sighed.


End file.
